SEC cites challenge of Dodd-Frank in slowing implementations of its rules

The pace at which the Securities and Exchange Commission has been writing and implementing rules mandated under the Dodd-Frank Act has slowed by approximately half.

SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said that the slowdown is a “natural lull” after a rush of proposals, Bloomberg reports.

“It’s easier to propose rules than it is to adopt them,” Schapiro told reporters last month, according to Bloomberg.

The SEC’s five commissioners have not met in the last four months to propose or approve Dodd-Frank regulations. Currently, regulators have only implemented half of the rules required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

Tom Quaadman, the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, spoke in defense of lawmakers, saying the Dodd-Frank Act imposes “impossible deadlines.”

“They’ve given them a 2,400-page piece of legislation that really directs the regulators to do all the hard work,” Quaadman said, according to Bloomberg.

The SEC is responsible for more Dodd-Frank rules than any other agency. The agency has written and approved approximately 20 percent of its rules and has proposed approximately 75 percent.

“We are currently reviewing thousands of comments from some of the proposals we issued to ensure that we get the final rules right,” John Nester, an SEC spokesman, said, according to Bloomberg.

Schapiro said that legal challenges to SEC rules have also been a setback for the agency. Last July, a U.S. appeals court rejected a rule that would simplify the process of putting board candidates on public-company ballots, adding that the SEC did not conduct a proper cost-benefit analysis. As a result, Schapiro said the agency is “taking more time on cost-benefit analysis,” Bloomberg reports.